Delhi Daredevils beat Deccan Chargers by 12 runs in their Indian Premier League match at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Thursday.

Scorecard

The victory was Delhi's fifth in 10 matches while it was Hyderabad's eighth defeat in as many matches.

Chasing 195 for victory, the Hyderbad team suffered an early jolt when captain Adam Gilchrist [Images] (13) fell to Glenn McGrath in the third over.

Slideshow

Shahid Afridi [Images] (33), promoted up the order, and Herschelle Gibbs [Images] (22) put on 50 runs for the second-wicket in only four overs, both indulging in some characteristic lusty hitting.

But even as things look to have settled down for Hyderabad both fell in quick succession, to spinner Amit Mishra.

The in-form Rohit Sharma (35 in 18 balls) and Scott Styris (29) put on another 39 runs for the fourth wicket before Sri Lankan Ferveez Maharoof picked up both of them.

Points table

Venugopal Rao again showed an aggressive intent again in his 18-ball 34 (three fours and two sixes) before skying a McGrath delivery, substitute Shoaib Malik [Images] making no mistake in the deep.

Mishra came back to take a hat-trick, the second of the tournament after Chennai's Lakshmipathy Balaji, picking up D Ravi Teja [Images] (9), Pragyan Ojha (0) and RP Singh (1) to finish with figures of five for 17.

Deccan Chargers finished at 182 for 9, 12 runs short off their target.

Earlier, twin half-centuries from Gautam Gambhir [Images] (79) and Shikhar Dhawan (68 not out) powered Delhi Daredevils to 194 for 4.

Put in to bat, the hosts lost skipper Virender Sehwag [Images] (0) in the first over but Gambhir and Dhawan shared 133 runs in just over 14 overs to steady the boat even though the hosts eventually fell shy of the 200-mark.

Gambhir's 48-ball pyrotechnics included seven hits to the fence besides three sixes. Dhawan's sedate unbeaten knock was a product of his 52-ball stay during which he hit eight boundaries.

Deccan Chargers' two wins so far in the tournament came chasing and, almost predictably, skipper Gilchrist inserted the hosts after winning the toss.

And by the time P Vijaykumar had finished the first over, Delhi had their skipper back in the hut after a two-ball misadventure yielding naught. 

If the fierce slash over the third man has fetched Sehwag truckloads of runs, it has often been his Achilles' heel as well. Vijaykumar offered the width and Sehwag went by his instinct only to find R P Singh as a hushed silence descended on the Ferozeshah Kotla.

Gambhir did not look quite convincing either. Twice he was almost caught and once escaped a run-out, making ground just in time to hang around.

The southpaw finally broke the shackles in the fourth over, milking 20 runs off it. R P Singh banged one short and Gambhir sent it over deep square leg ropes. He walked out to swat the next delivery over mid-wicket and followed it up with a full-blooded cut that zoomed past the point fielder for a four.

Dhawan was content playing the second fiddle all along and the left-hander hit Shahid Afridi for back-to-back boundaries to reach his half-century.

The duo laid the perfect foundation for a late burst but Gambhir's dismissal, stumped off a wide ball from Pragyan Ojha, came as anti-climax.

Ferveez Maharoof chipped in with an 11-ball 19.